Wikileaks Iraq

[Chomskyian]

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

Wikileaks Iraq files, Al Jazeera coverage

http://www.wikileaks.org/

[Chomskyian]

Apparently Julian Assange is going to hold a press release tomorrow about the documents.

Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Wikileaks Iraq War Docs (Part 1 of 2)

Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Wikileaks Iraq War Docs (Part 2 of 2)

[koffea]

it is always good for a government to feel insecure about what it is doing. Unethical behavior should be exposed. I do think its important to have a truly anonymous method for posting evidence of unethical behavior in government, churches, businesses, etc.

where i have issue is in the fact that they left some names and titles. they hid most of the names this time around, but still left titles? How hard is it going to be to figure it out? I dont know, but I think there is a line where the documents are likely to lead to individuals getting assassinated due to the actions of a government entity that should just not be crossed.

[Rockscar]

It’s all good…as long as the Obama leaks come downstream…oh don’t wait for it though. The CIA should have taken this org down someway. Leaking classified docs is the utmost example of responsibility when it comes to liberal national security policy!!!

[Carl2]

Torture and abuse by any party should be exposed - no matter what - but I get a bit of a Breitbart feeling about Assange - with Assange he’s “leaking” selective bits of real events and information and priming the audience towards how they should receive it.

Interesting piece, IMO: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/wikileaks-revolt/

[jre67t]

This is a damn shame, they are releasing this info to distract us from the election in the meantime how come Obamas transcript from college are still sealed come on wikileaks find something juicy.
And Carl torture and abuse are fine in my book if you are a soldier or are helping the enemy.

[koffea]

[quote]Carl_ wrote:
… but I get a bit of a Breitbart feeling about Assange - with Assange he’s “leaking” selective bits of real events and information and priming the audience towards how they should receive it. . . [/quote]

there is a lot of truth in that statement, and i agree with breitbart. too bad really, because i do feel that we need an unbiased place to expose corruption.

[weby]

[quote]Carl_ wrote:
Torture and abuse by any party should be exposed - no matter what - but I get a bit of a Breitbart feeling about Assange - with Assange he’s “leaking” selective bits of real events and information and priming the audience towards how they should receive it.

Interesting piece, IMO: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/wikileaks-revolt/[/quote]

I agree, but isn’t most information we receive manipulated to fit an agenda.